Feeling Tired All the Time?

Sleep is a basic human need, as important for good health as diet and exercise. Sleep lays the groundwork for a productive day ahead.

Although most adults need 7-9 hours of zzz’s each night to function well the next day, the average woman age 30-60 sleeps only 6.9 hours a night during the work week. Women are more likely than men to have difficulty falling and staying asleep and to experience daytime sleepiness at least a few times per week.

Daytime sleepiness that interferes with daily activities isn’t normal and may be a sign of sleep deprivation, a sleep disorder or medical condition.

Both quantity and quality of sleep are essential to optimum functioning. Although continuous sleep is ideal, it’s not uncommon to experience disruptions from a variety of underlying causes. For example, more women than men suffer from nighttime pain. In one study, one in four women reported that pain or physical discomfort interrupted her sleep three nights a week or more. Women are twice as likely to experience depression as men, and they’re more prone to arthritis and headaches, all conditions that can result in fragmented sleep.

Research has shown that too little and poor-quality sleep results in not only daytime sleepiness, but also more accidents, problems concentrating, poor performance on the job, difficulty getting along with others and, possibly, more sickness and weight gain.

Why Your Sex MattersBiological conditions unique to women can affect how well they sleep; the changing levels of hormones women experience throughout the month and over their lifetimes have an impact on sleep quality. Based on a study of nearly 40,000 people in Taiwan, better-educated women are more likely to report having a good night’s sleep with fewer disruptions.

Your Monthly Cycle and SleepOn average, women report disrupted sleep for 2-3 days each menstrual cycle. These changes can be linked to the rise and fall of hormone levels in the body.

The hormone progesterone, which rises after ovulation, may cause some women to feel sleepy or fatigued. However, poor-quality sleep is more likely at the beginning of the menstrual cycle when bleeding starts.

During the last part of the monthly cycle, premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms may occur. The bloating, headaches, moodiness, irritability and abdominal cramps associated with PMS may contribute to difficulty sleeping well.

The most common sleep-related problems reported by women with PMS are insomnia, hypersomnia (sleeping too much) and daytime sleepiness. The most common of these, insomnia, consists of difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, waking up too early, or unrefreshed sleep.